Negativity is like a cancer.

The Honor Roll Assembly was this morning at 8:00. It's one of the events I coordinate each year - with a lot of help from the office staff. This year, the formula for sorting out the students with a 3.2 GPA or better was acting up and the secretary kept finding mistakes in it. She was on the phone to the data center trying to get to the bottom of it, and in the end, the invitations simply went out much later than they should have. So late, that parents GOT them in the mail yesterday. It was certainly far less than ideal, and I was embarrassed that my name was on the letter!

I was rushing around, trying to tie up a few loose ends this morning, before heading to the assembly, when a woman walked in. I know this woman. I had many a meeting with her last year because she was angry at a teacher and wanted an audience to vent her frustrations. She is one of those parents who constantly needs special accommodations for her child because he is THAT SPECIAL (can you hear my eyes rolling?)

She stepped through my door and said, "I need to lodge a complaint! I received this invitation YESTERDAY! How is a parent supposed to get to an event without any advance notice?!?" I explained to her that they left the building in a timely fashion, but for whatever reason, there was a hold up and that I was very sorry for that. She went on to say, "I was able to get the time off, but what about all of the parents who can't? I can imagine there won't be many people here for it!" I again apologized. "Well, I just needed to complain." Thought bubble: "yep, you always do..."

During the assembly, we talk about how proud we are of the students' commitment to education, we have a speaker who speaks for a very short time (5-10 minutes),  we ask the students who are getting an honor roll pin for the first time to stand and be recognized (applause); the students who are receiving their second pin to stand and be recognized... etc. you get the idea. Finally, we call the names of students who are on the Honor Roll for the fourth year. Each of those students walks across the stage and gets his or her pin and certificate. And then the very brief assembly is over.

After the assembly, Ms. Caustic corners my colleague to complain again. "This assembly was a joke and a waste of time! I scrambled to try to get time off of work to be here so - what - so I can watch my daughter sit in her chair and then stand up once? I can't believe anyone would bother with this!" My colleague said he was sorry she felt that way. She finished by saying, "I just needed to complain." and walked away, shaking her head.

Aren't you glad you don't live inside THAT woman's head? What a miserable place that must be. I can just about visualize the negativity eating away her insides like a cancer. I feel sorry for her. In my world of 90-10...here's a definite 10.